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HUD/PSYCH Trivia (April 2007)

HUD/PSYCH Trivia: In honor of the interdisciplinary nature of Human Development, we bring you the following question: What co-designer of the “developmental niche” model has a Ph.D. in Anthropology, a Master’s in Public Health, was an NIH post-doctoral fellow in psychology, is married to a psychologist, and has worked with cultures on every continent except South America?

Answer: Jenny Kuhn was able to correctly identify that Dr. Sara Harkness was the co-designer of the “developmental niche” model, had degrees in Anthropology and Public Health, and has worked on six of seven continents. She and her husband, psychologist Charles M. Super, demonstrate what can happen when people with training in multiple disciplines have to share a house together . . . especially when that house is a hut in the Kalahari bush or an unheated cottage in the Polish winter! By arguing with one another, sharing perspectives with one another, and having to explain themselves to one another, Super and Harkness developed two of the most widely used theoretical constructs in cross-cultural human development: the developmental niche and the idea of parental ethno-theories. If you are interested in using mixed methods to study the ways that children’s learning, self-regulation and arousal are culturally channeled through parenting beliefs and practices, Dr. Harkness is currently accepting students in her Center for Culture, Health and Human Development. Check it out!